How to Keep Track of Receipts
Checked . Tax periods below are from the IRS pages linked in Sources. App prices and features are from each company's own site that day. FYN limits are from this site's pricing page.
A receipt is the short record of what you bought, what you paid, and who sold it. You need it when a store's return window is still open, when a warranty claim asks for proof of purchase, when a tax deduction needs support, when someone is reimbursing you, or when a charge on a statement does not match the bag you carried out. How to keep track of receipts is mostly a habit, not a gadget. The rest of this page is that habit: what to keep, how long, five ordinary methods, a weekly routine, and a few tools if you want software to do the filing.
Why a receipt is worth keeping
Returns. The window is the store's. It is printed on the receipt or posted on the store's site. There is no single national number of days, so this guide does not invent one. Keep the receipt at least until that date passes.
Warranties. A warranty claim usually asks for proof of the purchase date. The term is on the product, the box, or the manufacturer's page. Keep the receipt through that date. A card's extra purchase protection, if your card has it, is a separate set of terms. Those terms are not listed here.
Taxes. You do not need every grocery slip. You need the receipts that support an item of income, a deduction, or a credit, and the records that show what you paid for property. The periods are in the next section, from the IRS, not from a rule of thumb.
Reimbursement. An employer, a client, or an insurer sets the rule for what they will accept. Ask before you throw the paper away. Some accept a photo. Some want the original.
A charge that looks wrong. The receipt is what you show the store, and then the card issuer if you still disagree. Deal with it while you can still find the paper or the email. This guide does not state a dispute deadline.
How long to keep which receipts
Returns
Keep the receipt until the store's return window closes. If the item was a gift, the giver's receipt is the one that matters, and some stores will only exchange without it. After the window, keep the receipt only if a warranty or a tax reason is still open.
Warranties
Keep it through the warranty term. Write the end date next to the photo or the row in your sheet, because the receipt itself often does not print that date. If you register the product, keep the confirmation with the receipt.
Taxes
The IRS page How long should I keep records says you keep records that support an item of income, a deduction, or a credit until the period of limitations for that return runs out. Unless the page says otherwise, the years start after the return was filed. A return filed before the due date is treated as filed on the due date. Keep a copy of the filed return too. The page says those copies help with later returns and with an amended return. The IRS last reviewed that page on June 30, 2026.
The income-tax periods on that page are:
- 3 years, if the 6-year case and the two "keep indefinitely" cases below do not apply. The page numbers those as situations 4, 5, and 6.
- 3 years from the date you filed the original return, or 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later, if you file a claim for a credit or refund after you file.
- 7 years if you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or a bad debt deduction.
- 6 years if you do not report income you should report, and it is more than 25% of the gross income shown on the return.
- Indefinitely, if you do not file a return.
- Indefinitely, if you file a fraudulent return.
- Employment tax records: at least 4 years after the date the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later.
Property is separate. The same page says to keep records relating to property until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property. You need them to figure depreciation, amortization, or depletion, and to figure gain or loss when you sell. A home improvement, a car, or equipment you might sell belongs in this pile, not in the "toss it after the return window" pile.
When the tax period is over, the page says not to discard the record until you check whether you need it for something else. An insurer or a creditor may want it longer than the IRS does.
If the receipt supports a business expense, a second IRS page, What kind of records should I keep, says you may use an electronic system, and that the same rules apply to electronic records as to paper. Supporting documents for an expense should show the payee, the amount, proof of payment, the date, and a description. The IRS last reviewed that page on August 3, 2026. A photo you can no longer read does not do that job.
Reimbursements and disputed charges
Keep these until the other party has closed the request: the reimbursement is paid, or the store or the issuer has finished with the charge. That can be shorter than the tax period. If the same receipt also supports a deduction, the tax period wins.
Five ways to store receipts
People looking for the best way to store receipts usually need two things: a place the paper will not disappear, and a way to find one receipt later. Any of the five below can do that. The table is a practical comparison, not a measured test.
| Method | Effort | Searchability | Risk of loss | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper folder | Low on day one. High once the pile is mixed. | Weak, unless you sort by month or by store. | High. Paper gets thrown out, soaked, or lost in a move, and it can fade. | A folder or a stack of envelopes. |
| Phone photos in a cloud folder | One photo each, plus a file name with the date and the store. | Only as good as the names. An unnamed camera roll is hard to search. | High if the photos stay only on the phone. Lower if the folder opens on another device. | The cloud account you already have. This page does not price those accounts. |
| Email folders or labels | Low for receipts that already arrive by email. It misses paper. | Good. Search the sender or the subject. | Low while you can log in. Lose the account and you lose the pile. | The email account you already use. |
| Spreadsheet | You type the date, the store, the amount, and why you are keeping it. | Good if you keep the sheet current. | The sheet and the photo are two files. Lose either one and the record is incomplete. | A spreadsheet you already have. |
| Receipt-scanning app | A photo or an email forward, then a check that the total is right. | Strong when the app reads the merchant and the amount. | You depend on the company, and on whether you can export. Limits are below. | Free to paid, depending on the app. Prices are in the tools section. |
Paper. One folder, split by month or by store. It works until the folder becomes a junk drawer. Paper can fade or get lost, so a photo of a receipt you still care about is the backup.
Photos. One folder per month in the cloud drive you already use. Name the file with the date and the store, for example 2026-10-27-hardware-store. If the photos live only in the camera roll, a lost or replaced phone takes them with it.
Email. A label or a folder called Receipts. Search still works if you forget to file one. This covers online orders and many subscriptions, and it misses the paper register slip. Recurring charges are a different job from filing the receipt. That guide is how to track subscriptions automatically.
A spreadsheet. Columns that earn their keep: date, store, amount, why you are keeping it (return, warranty, tax, reimbursement), the deadline, and the file name of the photo. Skip a column and the sheet becomes a list you do not trust. Typing every line by hand, versus letting a scanner read it, is the tradeoff in receipt scanning vs manual tracking.
An app. Useful when the weekly pile is the thing you keep skipping, or when you need the text of the receipt to be searchable. It is a worse fit if you will not open it. The next section is four that actually take receipts, with the limits on their own pages.
A weekly routine
Pick one day. Fifteen minutes is enough if you did not save this for a month. The point is that nothing stays loose for more than a week.
- During the week, drop paper receipts into one envelope. Do not sort them in the parking lot.
- On the weekly pass, photograph each one into that month's folder, or scan it in the app you actually use. Name it with the date and the store.
- Move real email receipts into the Receipts label. Leave the marketing mail alone.
- For anything you might return, write the store's last return day on the note or in the sheet. Get the date from the receipt or the store's policy.
- For anything with a warranty, write the end date the same way.
- If a charge looks wrong, start with the store while the receipt is in front of you.
Once a year, when you gather tax records, keep what supports the return and let the rest go if the return window and the warranty are both over. Property records stay, for the reason in the tax section. Then empty the envelope.
Tools that scan receipts
Four options, checked . Disclosure: we build FYN, and it is listed last. The other three are not our products. Each one is a different job. A longer budget-app comparison, if that is what you wanted instead, is Monarch Money alternatives. If you are choosing an app, including QuickBooks Online and Dext, the product roundup is best receipt scanner apps. This section stays on how a few tools fit a filing habit.
Shoeboxed
Shoeboxed scans receipts, including paper you mail in a Magic Envelope, and it tracks mileage. It is not free. The pricing FAQ lists Starter at $9 a month or $97 a year ($8.08 a month): 50 digital scans a month, 20 paper scans a year, 3 years of digital scan storage, and 3 users. Pro is $29 a month or $297 a year ($24.75 a month): 250 digital scans a month, Gmail receipt sync, and QuickBooks Online and Xero. Pro keeps digital scans while the account is active. The card is charged when you sign up. There is a 30-day money-back guarantee, with the Magic Envelope exception in the next paragraph. The plan list includes iOS and Android apps.
Honest limit: Starter's 3 years of storage is Shoeboxed's limit, not the IRS rule. A property record, or a 6-year or 7-year tax case, can outlast that plan. The pricing page says you can export at any time. It also asks you not to request the money-back refund if a Magic Envelope has already shipped, because Shoeboxed has already paid to mail and scan it.
Expensify
Expensify is built around expense reports. Two of its pages, read the same day, do not describe the free plan in the same way, so this section quotes both and does not invent a price.
The help article Use Free Features in Expensify says you can use Expensify without a paid workspace. Anyone with an account can SmartScan unlimited receipts, forward receipts to [email protected], track distance, enter an expense by hand, and export a CSV on the web. The same article says a paid workspace is required for categories, tags, automatic reimbursement, accounting integrations, and the Expensify Card.
The Submit plan page says Submit is free for employees, with no credit card, and that it includes SmartScan, mileage tracking, and sending a report to a manager. It says a manager who upgrades the workspace to Collect gets a 30-day trial, and that Collect adds direct reimbursement, approvals, and accounting sync. That page also describes categories and tags on a Submit workspace. The help article puts categories and tags on a paid workspace. Where those two pages disagree, do not assume categories are free. Neither page stated a monthly dollar price for Collect.
Honest limit: the documented job is the expense report. This check did not find a published retention period for receipt images on the free personal account, so this guide does not state one.
Monarch Money
Monarch is a budget app that also imports receipts. Its receipt article, updated October 27, 2026, says you can scan or upload a receipt, or forward the email to [email protected]. It reads the merchant, the amount, the date, and line items when the receipt has them, and it tries to match a posted transaction. Amounts on a matched transaction are not overwritten. Refund line items are not extracted. Each forwarded email is one receipt.
On October 27, 2026 the plan cards on Monarch's pricing page listed Core at $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year (shown as $8.33 a month), and Plus at $199.99 a year (shown as $16.67 a month). Each card says "Free 7-day trial, then" the price, and that a payment method is required. The page's structured data describes those prices as US dollars, plus tax where it applies. The pricing FAQ's cost answer lists the $99.99 year and the $14.99 month. Receipt import is part of that subscription. The pages read for this guide do not show a separate free receipt plan.
Honest limit: you are paying for the budget app, and the receipts come with it. The receipt article does not say how long the image is kept.
FYN
FYN is our product. On the pricing page, photo scans and emailed receipts are one monthly count: 20 on Free and 200 on Pro. Forwarding an order confirmation counts as a receipt. Receipt OCR and smart search are on both plans, and the free plan creates transactions from those receipts. Claim letters (return, warranty, and price-adjustment letters from a receipt) are 10 a month on Free and 100 a month on Pro. If you ask for the letter inside Ask FYN, that message also counts as one question. Ask FYN is plain-English questions about your money: 20 a month on Free and 500 a month on Pro, resetting on the 1st. A receipt scan does not use a question.
Pro is $9.99 a month. Linking a bank is part of Pro, up to 15 accounts via Plaid. The free plan does not include a new bank link. The pricing page does not list an annual plan. It is free to start, and the free plan does not ask for a card.
Honest limit: 20 receipts a month on Free is a cap, not unlimited scanning. The pricing page does not say how long a stored receipt is kept, so this guide does not invent a retention period. FYN is a poor fit if you need mailed paper scanning or a finished expense report for an employer. Those are Shoeboxed and Expensify jobs.
Which method to use
Use the folder and the weekly photos if you will not pay and you will do the fifteen minutes. Use email labels for the receipts that never become paper. Use Expensify when the job is an expense report, and read the two free-plan descriptions above before you count on categories. Use Shoeboxed when you want paper mailed in and scanned, and you are willing to pay from $9 a month. Use Monarch when you already want that budget subscription and the receipt import is a feature of it, not the reason to start a trial.
Use FYN when you want photo and email receipts before you pay to link a bank, and 20 receipts a month is enough to start. The limits, including claim letters, are on the pricing page. FYN is free to start.
FAQ
How long should I keep receipts for taxes?
Keep a receipt when it supports an item of income, a deduction, or a credit on a return, until the IRS period of limitations for that return runs out. The IRS page "How long should I keep records" says the years generally start after you file, and a return filed before the due date counts as filed on the due date. If the 6-year and "keep indefinitely" cases on that page do not apply, keep the records for 3 years. Keep them 6 years if you leave out income you should have reported and it is more than 25% of the gross income on the return. Keep them 7 years for a worthless-securities loss or a bad debt deduction. Keep them indefinitely if you do not file, or if you file a fraudulent return. A refund claim filed later uses 3 years from the original filing or 2 years from when you paid the tax, whichever is later. Employment tax records are at least 4 years. Property records generally stay until the limitation period ends for the year you dispose of the property. The page was last reviewed by the IRS on June 30, 2026.
Are photos of receipts enough?
For a return or a warranty, a readable photo is what many stores will accept, and some still want the original paper. Keep the photo named with the date and the store, and back it up somewhere other than the phone. For a business expense, the IRS page "What kind of records should I keep" says an electronic system is allowed when it meets the same rules as paper records. That page was last reviewed by the IRS on August 3, 2026. A photo you cannot read later does not meet that bar.
How do I keep receipts for returns and warranties?
The return window is the store's, not a national number of days. Read it on the receipt or the store's site, and keep the receipt until that date passes. A warranty lasts for the term on the product, the box, or the manufacturer's page. Write that end date next to the photo or the spreadsheet row. A card's purchase protection, if you have it, has its own terms. This guide does not list those terms.
What is the best way to store receipts?
The one you will still use in a few months. A paper folder is fine if you sort it. Phone photos work if each file has a date and a store name and the folder is not only on the phone. Email labels work for receipts that arrive by email and miss every paper receipt. A spreadsheet is searchable if you fill it in. A scanning app is worth it when the pile or the search is the problem. The comparison on this page is practical, not a lab test.
Do I need a receipt app?
No. An envelope and a monthly folder cover returns and warranties if you do the weekly pass. Use an app when you want the merchant and the total read for you, or when someone else needs an expense report. Shoeboxed is paid from $9 a month. Expensify's help center says a personal account includes unlimited SmartScan, and its Submit page calls that employee plan free. Monarch's receipt import sits inside the paid budget subscription. FYN, which we build, includes photo and email receipts on the free plan, 20 a month as one count. None of those facts makes the others a bad tool.
Should I keep every receipt?
Keep it if you might return the item, use a warranty, get reimbursed, dispute the charge, or support a tax item. A grocery slip with no return window and no deduction can go. Once a year, drop receipts that are past the return window, past the warranty, and past the tax period. Do not discard a receipt tied to property, such as a home improvement or equipment you could sell, until the IRS property rule above is satisfied. The IRS also says an insurer or a creditor may need a record longer than the tax period.
Sources
Checked . Tax periods point at the IRS. App facts point at each company's site. FYN limits point at this site's pricing page.
- How long to keep records that support income, deductions, and credits, and the property rule. IRS last reviewed June 30, 2026: How long should I keep records.
- Electronic records for a business, and what an expense document should show. IRS last reviewed August 3, 2026: What kind of records should I keep.
- Shoeboxed plans, storage, the money-back guarantee, and export: shoeboxed.com/pricing.
- Expensify free personal features, including unlimited SmartScan, and what a paid workspace adds: Use Free Features in Expensify.
- Expensify Submit plan, and what the page says Collect adds: Free expense tracker for employees.
- Monarch receipt scan, upload, and email forwarding, updated October 27, 2026: Importing receipts into Monarch.
- Monarch Core and Plus prices, the 7-day trial, and the pricing FAQ: monarch.com/pricing.
- FYN plan limits, including receipt counts, claim letters, Ask FYN, and Pro bank sync: fyn.fyi/pricing.